Worker Rights

Poultry And Prisons: Toward A General Strike For Abolition

July 24, 2020 Carrie Freshour, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Poultry Plant, Prison abolition, Prisoner rights, Worker Rights

On April 28, 2020, Donald Trump utilized the Defense Production Act to keep meat-processing plants open. As of this writing, twenty-two plants have closed, if only temporarily, after large numbers of workers tested positive for COVID-19.1 Yet, the number of worker deaths across the industry, including four workers at a Tyson chicken-processing plant in Camilla, Georgia, continues to rise.2 Black workers, who make up a majority of the Tyson plant’s workforce, live in neighboring Dougherty county. This county was once central to the cotton-producing region of the Black Belt, constructed through the violence of plantation slavery entwined with the productivity of the soil.

LA County OKs Coronavirus ‘Health Councils’ To Watch Worker Safety

July 23, 2020 Daily News. Create! COVID-19, Los Angeles, Public Health, Worker Rights

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, July 21, approved a proposal to facilitate worker-led “health councils” to monitor business compliance with public health orders. Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas co-authored the motion recommending that the county reach out to labor leaders and business representatives and quickly come up with effective ways to monitor compliance with mandates to wear facial coverings, install protective shields and disinfect workplaces. Essentially, the workers themselves would monitor conditions within their workplace, Kuehl said, noting recent reports of “devastating” coronavirus outbreaks.

The Unionization Attempt At No Evil Foods Holds Lessons For Workers

July 19, 2020 By Shane Burley, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Food Workers, Union Organizing, Unions, Worker Rights

Since a union in the workplace leads to both higher wages and better benefits — as well as erodes management’s authority — few bosses remain neutral during a union fight. It is not uncommon to find them returning to tactics that workers describe as intimidating or coercive. This is even true in workplaces that espouse “progressive” or left-wing principles, where rhetoric and politics mean little when money and power are on the line. This is what several employees allege happened when they tried to unionize at No Evil Foods — a large vegan foods brand founded in 2014 and available at more than 5,500 retail locations, including Whole Foods. No Evil Foods sought to appeal to social justice activists by using names like El Zapatista or Comrade Chuck for their products but were firm in their opposition to a union. After losing a union election, employees at a growing vegan food company have insights into how to overcome the challenges of organizing in a liberal workplace.

Bolivians Take To The Streets Against The Añez Government

July 18, 2020 Telesur English. Resist! Bolivia, Elections, US coup, Worker Rights

Bolivia's Workers Central (COB) Tuesday called for tens of thousands of people to hold a mass protest in several cities against the coup-born regime led by Jeanine Añez. "The Bolivian people, the Indigenous groups, and educational organizations raised their voice of protest today," the COB Secretary-General Juan Carlos Huarachi said in La Paz. One of the demonstrators' main calls is the definitive confirmation of the general elections for September 6. "We ask for a democratically elected government that resolves the country's economic and health crisis caused by COVID-19," Huarachi added, adding that citizens also demand the resignation of the Education Minister Victor Hugo Cardenas.

Flight Attendants Tell Airlines: Don’t Even Think About Concessions

July 15, 2020 Sara Nelson, Labor Notes. Resist! Airlines, COVID-19, Labor Unions, Worker Rights

The COVID-19 crisis hit airline workers with speed and devastation. Passenger flow through TSA checkpoints fell 97 percent in March compared to a year earlier. In the months since, travel demand has only barely recovered, to 20 percent of a year ago. Flight attendants know from hard experience the volatility of the airline industry and the harsh impact a crisis can have on airline workers. And this is a crisis like no other in the history of commercial aviation. We know cuts to our contracts at any one airline set up a downward spiral for our careers. Instead, we’re getting ahead of any attempts by management. Flight attendants across the industry are united against concessions. Together, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, and the Transport Workers Union—representing 80 percent of all U.S. flight attendants—signed an open letter

Thousands Of Workers Strike Bath Iron Works

July 15, 2020 Joe Piette, Workers.org. Resist! Labor Unions, Strikes, US military, Worker Rights

Over 4,300 production workers — represented by Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Local S6 — walked off the job at the Bath Iron Works shipyard June 23 after unsuccessful contract negotiations. Workers had made concessions in their last contract, but are reluctant to agree to attacks on seniority rights, increased health care costs and subcontracting which threatens current workers’ jobs. Bath Iron Works is one of the U.S. Navy’s largest shipbuilders and a major employer in Maine, with a total of 6,800 workers. General Dynamics, the company that runs the BIW shipyard, raked in $3.34 billion in 2018, largely through contracts from the Navy. Now General Dynamics is trying to squeeze even more profits from the workers.

Where Do We Go from Here?

July 13, 2020 Howard Brand, Information Clearinghouse. Strategize! Democracy, Inequality, Racial disparities, Worker Rights

Identity politics currently is in the forefront of the United States political agenda, and things do look quite dismal in regard to wealth, opportunity, and quality of life of a significant number of minority workers—but this is also the case, when we look closely, for a large segment of the overall population of our country. The question I see is where do we want to go and how can we change the situation? It is quite clear to me that the current ruling class has no intention of giving up their ruling position without a concerted fight. The ruling elite (the capitalist class or rich people as a class, not individually) have fought throughout the history of its existence—about 350 years, for its ruling position. I think the choice for us is this: Parity or Emancipation?

Rally Protests Anti-Racist Teacher’s Suspension

July 9, 2020 Lyn Neeley, Workers.org. Resist! Education, Racism, Teachers, Worker Rights

Milton, MA - Hundreds rallied on Juneteenth (June 19) in Milton, Mass., calling for an end to systemic racism in school curriculum and voicing support for Zakia Jarrett, an African-American sixth-grade English teacher. Jarrett was briefly put on administrative leave June 5 for her remarks on police violence during a lesson on racism. Jarrett, who has taught for 18 years, used the last line of the poem “Allowables” by Nikki Giovanni as a metaphor for racism. The line reads: “I don’t think I’m allowed to kill something because I am afraid.” Jarrett explained that killing out of fear leads to systemic racism and unconscious bias and that the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery did so because of the color of his skin, not because of something he did.

FCA Toledo Jeep Workers Support Call For Rank-And-File Safety Committees

July 4, 2020 Marcus Day, WSWS. Organize! COVID-19, PPE, Strike, Worker Rights

Anger is reaching a boiling point as workers continue to fall ill and management and the United Auto Workers union refuse to release information about the extent of COVID-19 cases. “It is ridiculous,” Johnny, a worker at Fiat Chrysler’s Toledo North Assembly Plant, said. “Threats and intimidation. People popping up positive left and right. I’ve been hearing we’ve had about 11 positive this week alone. All the different parts of the plants. Plus, there are several other potential cases.” Another worker at the FCA Toledo plant said that workers needed a rank-and-file safety committee at their factory, adding that they had read and shared the statement by the committee at Jefferson North. “Management and the union are two peas in a pod down in Toledo. Management has threatened the workers about any line stoppage. The union is still in hiding.

“Hard Road Of Hope” Shows West Virginia Is A Mirror Of The United States

June 30, 2020 Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance. Educate! Climate Justice, Fossil Fuels, West Virginia, Worker Rights

For years now Eleanor has been participating in climate justice camps and actions providing support to those on the front lines of the climate and environmental crises however it was needed from producing media to locking down. It was through this work that she became aware of the major shift from mountain top removal for coal to fracking for gas, both very exploitative and extractive industries, in West Virginia. As she went there to cover what was happening, it became clear that the story was too big for anything but a documentary. In "Hard Road of Hope," Eleanor teaches the untold history of how immigrants were brought to West Virginia to work in the coal mines and how they worked together against dangerous and oppressive working conditions. You will likely be surprised by this history. I was. As West Virginians tell the story of this struggle, Eleanor weaves in the roots of capitalism, colonization and cultural genocide that created and made it possible to maintain such oppression.

Detroit Fiat Chrysler Workers Halt Production For Second Day

June 28, 2020 Jessica Goldstein, WSWS. Resist! COVID-19, PPE, Strikes, Worker Rights

Workers continued their courageous production stoppage at the Fiat Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly Plant (JNAP) in Detroit on Friday. Workers on “B crew” entered the plant at 4:30 p.m. and refused to work under conditions where basic safety and health protocols, including social distancing measures and cleaning guidelines, are being flouted by the corporation and the United Auto Workers union (UAW) in order to maximize profits. Production at the plant remained at a standstill due to the workers’ action against the corporation and the UAW and a lack of labor due to the refusal of workers to report for work out of legitimate health concerns. The production halt at the plant, which employs 5,000 people, began Thursday at noon when workers on “A crew” stopped work after hearing that at least three coworkers had tested positive for COVID-19.

People’s Strike: An Open Letter To All Forces Fighting For Our Lives

June 27, 2020 PeoplesStrike.org. Strategize! COVID-19, General Strike, Recession, Worker Rights

The “normal” world roiled by this pandemic is deeply unequal, inequitable, exploitative, extractive, and repressive. It is deeply fractured around capitalist colonialism, racial oppression, gender, sexuality, nationality, and religion. It is this real world dystopia that has led to the needless death of more than 115,000 people in the United States of COVID-19, with at least 25,00 new infections daily. The vast majority of the infected and dead are Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. In the midst of the pandemic, it is this dystopian world that right-wing Republicans and neoliberal Democrats are determined to force-march us all back into against our will. Rather than following the proven best public health practices and developing a scientific, medically determined response to the pandemic, they are putting profits over people in order to save the capitalist system.

Firing Police For Excessive Use Of Force Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does

June 25, 2020 Martha Bellisle, AP News. Educate! Accountability, Police violence, Unions, Worker Rights

Seattle - An Oregon police officer lost his job and then returned to work after fatally shooting an unarmed Black man in the back. A Florida sergeant was let go six times for using excessive force and stealing from suspects, while a Texas lieutenant was terminated five times after being accused of striking two women, making threatening calls and committing other infractions. These officers and hundreds of others across the country were fired, sometimes repeatedly, for violating policies but got their jobs back after appealing their cases to an arbitrator who overturned their discipline — an all-too-common practice that some experts in law and in policing say stands in the way of real accountability. “Arbitration inherently undermines police decisions,” said Michael Gennaco, a police reform expert and former federal civil rights prosecutor who specialized in police misconduct cases.

‘No Evil’ Foods Purges Pro-Union Employees

May 23, 2020 Paul Blest, The Appeal. Educate! COVID-19, Food and Agriculture, Unions, Worker Rights

No Evil Foods created products like El Zapatista and Comrade Cluck, but workers say its conduct doesn’t live up to its leftist branding. No Evil Foods describes its mission as to “put more good into the world.” The North Carolina company started in 2014 when its owners and founders Mike Woliansky and Sadrah Schadel sold plant-based meat products out of a cooler at Asheville farmer's markets. Since then, the company sells products with left-wing names like Comrade Cluck (a mock chicken product), the Pardon (a Thanksgiving-season turkey substitute), and El Zapatista, vegan chorizo whose name is a nod to the revolutionary indigenous movement in southern Mexico.

Migrants Lead Struggle As ‘Reopening’ Fuels Resistance

May 21, 2020 Sue Davis, Workers.org. Resist! Autoworkers, Immigrants, Reopen Economy, Worker Rights

Ford Motors CEO Jim Farley said during a recent conference call, “The auto industry is [the U.S.] economic engine. Restarting the entire auto ecosystem is how we restart the economy.” (New York Times, May 18) But Farley has it wrong. It’s the 400,000 production workers at the Detroit Three automakers, Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler (FCA), who resume working today around the world who will have the final say. After a series of wildcat strikes across the industry in mid-March protesting unsafe working conditions in close quarters and lack of protective equipment, the workers are going back with some — but not enough — protection. Their temperatures with be taken after reporting to work each day, and masks, gloves and eye protection are required.

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